GITMO Not Gone

It seems that the Senate is finally holding the line on spending. There will be no money for a GITMO shutdown.

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a major rebuke to President Barack Obama, the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to block the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States and denied the administration the millions it sought to close the prison.

The 90-6 Senate vote—paired with similar House action last week—was a clear sign to Obama that he faces a tough fight getting the Democratic-controlled Congress to agree with his plans to shut down the detention center and move the 240 detainees.

Last month, Obama asked for $80 million for the Pentagon and the Justice Department to close the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by January. In the eyes of the world, the prison has come to exemplify harsh U.S. anti-terror tactics and detention without trial for almost all of its inmates, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan.

The administration put its Democratic allies in a difficult spot by requesting the Guantanamo closure money before developing a plan for what to do with its detainees.

Obama is scheduled to give a major address Thursday outlining in more detail his plans for Guantanamo, but it's already clear that Congress has little appetite for bringing detainees to U.S. soil, even if the inmates would be held in maximum-security prisons.

How about that? 90 to 6 in a Senate with 60 Democrat members. Dear Leader seems to be losing control of his own Party. The question is: do the Democrats in Congress have any more appetite for the carbon tax commonly referred to as Cap and Trade? Or the total dismantling of the current health care system? It is one of the reasons Presidents like to get as much done as possible in their first 100 days in order to prevent the opposition to various proposals from coalescing.

Cross Posted at Classical Values